How To Deactivate Wi-Fi And Bluetooth On Your iPhone

You disconnected the Wi-Fi and the Bluetooth connection on your iPhone and wonder why AirDrop and AirPlay still work? Apple has changed the function of the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth icons in the control center. They do no longer deactivate the complete function but only the current connection. We show you how to deactivate the connection completely.

AirDrop and AirPlay still work

This supposed problem is, in fact, no bug but an intended new setting Apple even dedicated an own support page to. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are supposed to stay active to enable the usage of important services such as AirDrop, AirPlay, Handoff, Instant Hotspot and location services. Apple also wants to ensure a steady connection to the Apple Watch and the Apple Pencil on the iPad Pro.

Deactivate Wi-Fi and Bluetooth completely

To deactivate Bluetooth or Wi-Fi open your settings app and click on the respective buttons. As soon as you turn the switch all connections are disconnected.

You can recognize all deactivated functions by their appearance in the settings app: they are crossed out with a grey background. If this is not the case they are still active.

As of now, there is no other way to completely deactivate Wi-Fi or Bluetooth outside of the settings app.